HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY, Spring
2008
Lou Marcus, instructor
ARH 4710-001 (undergraduate), ARH 6798-006
(graduate)
Tuesday/Thursday, 3:00-4:50 p.m., FAH 290
Office hours:
Wednesdays, 10-12 a.m. or by appointment
marcus@arts.usf.edu
course website: http://historyofphoto.arts.usf.edu
"It is my hope that this approach will allow the art of photography to be seen not as a special case, peripheral to the larger story of the medium’s broad concerns and instrumental functions, but rather, and simply, as that work that embodies the clearest, most eloquent expression of photography’s historic and continuing search for a renewed and vital identity.”
John Szarkowski, Photography
Until Now, 1989
“Photography as such as no identity. Its stature as a technology varies with the power relations which invest it. Its nature as a practice depends on the institutions and agents which define it and set it to work.... It is a flickering across a field of institutional spaces and it is this field we must study, not photography as such.”
John Tagg, The Burden of Representation, 1988
“The lens, the so-called impartial eye, actually permits every possible distortion of reality....The importance of photography does not rest primarily in its potential as an art form, but rather in its ability to shape our ideas, to influence our behavior, and to define our society.”
Gisele Freund, Photography and Society, 1974
This is a survey course which will provide an overview of photography from pre-photographic times to the present. Given that there is single history but only histories of the medium, the course will explore a variety of critical approaches to photography, its practice in relation to other art forms and its role in the development of mass culture.
Course goals:
·
to gain a basic knowledge of photographic history, its major events,
practitioners and theorists.
·
to develop an understanding of photography as a value and an idea that
has played an important role in western culture, its relationship to theories of
truth and knowledge, to the development of modernism and postmodernism and to
the radical social transformations of the past two centuries.
·
to develop an ability to think critically about photographs and visuality
in a range of contexts including art, advertising, journalism and propaganda,
and to explore the social, political and ethical dimensions of visual media in
our culture.
Course outcomes:
·
Students will leave this course with a foundation
in photographic history and theoretical issues surrounding both historical and
contemporary photography.
·
Students will leave this course with a stronger
understanding of the ways in which photography has mediated our understanding of
the world, and of the ways in which the photograph has both confirmed and
complicated our conception of reality.
·
Students will leave this course with an ability
to read photographic images critically in a range of contexts and with the
ability to extend their understanding of issues treated in class through further
reading and research.
· Students will consider the possibility that the university-mandated requirement that instructors include "course outcomes" may run counter to the spirit of intellectual inquiry and adventure with which the instructor hopes to approach this course.
Course structure:
The course utilizes a chronological framework while insisting upon connections between past and present throughout the semester. In other words, within a chronological sequence of events and images, we will aim for synchronic understanding of how the past and present of photography can be read through each other. The first half of the semester will be devoted to providing students a background in the history of photography from its origins roughly up until World War I and will also introduce a range of concepts and critical approaches to the photograph which we will build upon during the second half of the semester. The second half of the semester will be larged devoted to the role of photography within 20th century modern/postmodern art and culture.
Class sessions will be devoted to lectures and discussions, screenings of
films related to the course content, a visit to the Special Collections room of
the main library. Students
are required to attend a minimum of two events outside of our schedule class
time related to photography, either/and/or lectures by photographers included in
the
Course requirements:
·attendance, participation and lateness. This class requires your active participation in discussions as well as your attentiveness to and engagement with the lecture material. Concepts and critical thinking will be emphasized over memorization. Therefore, there is no substitute for your presence at all class meetings. A sign-in attendance sheet will be distributed at each class and any unexcused absences will have a negative impact upon your final grade. Unexcused absences in excess of three will result in a full grade deduction from the final grade. Classes will begin promptly and students are expected to arrive on time. Since lateness is a disturbance to the class, repeated lateness will be noted and will have a negative impact upon your final grade in the course. Note that students are expected to be present in mind as well as body. Students who nap or sleep during class will be counted as absent and will be asked to leave.
·completion of assigned readings according to the course syllabus provided below. Required readings are essential. Optional readings will enhance your understanding of the ideas and issues introduced in class and your ability to convey that understanding in the papers and exams.
·review of slide-study pages which will be posted and updated on the course's website throughout the semester. These study pages will feature selected images from the class lectures and will be helpful in reviewing the main ideas introduced in lectures and discussions. They are essential to your preparation for the exams.
·completion of two written exams, one at mid-term and one at the end of the semester. The exams will consist of approximately 25% identification and 75% essay. Approximately 50% of the exams will consist of take-home essays to be completed outside of class time.
·
readings journal: This is one of the best ways of
clarifying and synthesizing for yourself the assigned readings and/or lecture
material. Entries in your journal are required for all the
required readings in the syllabus that are printed entirely in
bold. The journal will be essential to your
preparation for exams and will be collected three times during the
semester. The journal will also include one-page responses to a
minimum of two photography-related events outside of class time (either visiting
artist lectures or optional class visits to the
·panel discussion. Each student will participate, in small groups, in a panel discussion on one of the assigned readings. The panelists will take special responsibility for responding to and interpreting these readings and for generating a discussion of the readings in class.
·completion of two 3-4 page papers. These short papers are not research papers, but rather will provide you with an opportunity to apply critical approaches introduced in discussions and readings to photographs either from the texts or from your own sources and will help you to develop your ability to express your ideas about photography in writing. The context and guidelines for these papers will be provided through class lectures and associated readings. Papers must be submitted typed and in duplicate.
·Internet requirement: The course website is the “binder” for this course and contains numerous materials essential to your participation in it. These will include short readings and explanatory material posted on the website's bulletin board and slide study pages all of which should be printed out and kept in a file for future reference and study. You will have also have access to the complete slide lectures through the MIDD database. Therefore, it will be necessary for you to visit the course’s website at least twice a week in order to remain current with the material being covered. Students will be expected to print out key readings that have been posted on electronic reserve and which can be accessed through Blackboard.
Grading:
The final grade will be determined as follows: 20%
on the mid-term exam, 20% on the final exam, 15% for each of the two short
papers, 20% for the readings journal and 10% for your overall
participation. Papers and the take-home portion of the exams will be
graded for writing as well as content. Final grades will be given on the
plus/minus
grading system.
Required texts:
Mary Warner Marien, Photography: A Cultural History (second edition),
There will be several articles assigned during the semester that are not
contained in the above texts and which have been placed on electronic
reserve. Electronic reserve
articles can be accessed only through Blackboard and by logging onto the Myusf site. In addition, brief readings
and selections of quotations related to course topics will be provided either as
photocopies distributed in class or posted on the "bulletin board" link of the
course website. All of these should be kept in your notebook for
future reference. Students
who prefer to receive the electronic reserve readings on a cd should bring a
blank cd with their name on it to class within the first two weeks of the
semester.
Optional texts:
Goldberg, Vicki, Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the
Present, Albuquerque:
Books on reserve: A number of books closely related to the course content have been placed on reserve at the library in order to provide greater access to all of the students in the class. These books may be useful to you in your research for papers or for further study of concepts and issues introduced in class. For a list of these items, see the link "bibliography/books on reserve" on the History of Photography home page.
History of Photography listserv: All students will be subscribed to a listserv which will be used by the instructor to communicate with the class and which students can use to communicate with each other. The address is: photohistory@listmonster.cvpa.usf.edu.
Slide-study pages: Selected images from the slide lectures will be posted on slide-study pages located at the School of Art and Art History's Visual Resources Library site. You are expected to review these weekly. These study slides will be posted on the site in advance of the lectures so it is suggested that you print them out and bring them to class as a supplement and guide. Access to the pages requires the following login and password:
Login = slides / password = miro1?#
Lectures and Required readings for the first half of the semester. (The follow is subject to change but all changes will be announced in class and through the History of Photography listserv well in advance.)
Week 1
Tuesday, January 8th: Introduction: overview of course, syllabus and assigned texts. The historiography of photography: formalist vs. contextualist approaches; historical periodization, technological determinism, progressivism and the impact of accepted "metanarratives" upon our understanding of photography; the stereograph as a metaphor for a diachronic or "constellar" approach to history; living in Plato’s Cave; three discourses of the photograph: reality, construct, index.
required reading: e-reserve: Plato, The Simile of the Cave
Thursday, January 10th: Preconditions for photography: Developments in philosophy, art, and society which provided the foundation for photography: Regis Debray's three epochs of the image: supernatural, natural, virtual. Cartesian duality and the camera obscura.
required readings: Sontag, In Plato’s Cave, pgs. 3-24; e-reserve (PIP): Nadar, My Life as a Photographer, pgs. 127-128; Marien, Chapter One: The Origins of Photography (to 1839), pgs. 1-24.
optional readings: e-reserve (PIP): Wright Morris, In Our Image
Week 2
Tuesday, January 15th: The "pencil of nature": the confluence of rationalism and romanticism in the photograph. The referential illusion – the transparency and opacity of the photograph.
Thursday, January 17th: Panel discussion of Sontag article:
"In Plato's Cave". Introduction
to the readings for this weekend (essays by
required
readings: e-reserve (PIP):
Week 3
Tuesday, January 22nd: Follow-up to panel discussion last Thursday and to ideas introduced in class last week.
Thursday, January 24th: Panel
discussion on
required
readings: Marien, Chapter
Two: The Second Invention of Photography (1839-1854), pgs. 50-79; "Every Picture Tells a
Story" (xerox handout from "The Nation" magazine will be provided in
class); e-reserve: Linda Nochlin, "The Imaginary
Orient", (from The Politics of Vision,
Week 4
Tuesday, January 29th: The
Society of the Spectacle: photography
and the emergence of mass culture.
Historical and contemporary manifestations of the spectacle in
photography; the colonization and commodification of time and space. Introduction and discussion of first
short paper, due on Tuesday, Feb. 12th.
Thursday, January 31st: Panel discussion of "Every Picture Tells a Story" and Nochlin’s "The Imaginary Orient". Photography and the production of alterity: orientalist photography in the 19th century and its contemporary manifestations.
required readings: e-reserve: Marina LaPalma, "Situationism: A Primer"; Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, Chapter 1, "Separation Perfected" on e-reserve: or located at: http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/16
Week 5
Tuesday, February
5th: Film screening: Alfred
Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”
required readings: e-reserve (PIP): Baudelaire, The Salon of 1859, pgs. 123-126
Thursday, February 7th:
Discussion of “Rear Window” /
Photography and modernity: the urban experience and the "man in the
crowd". Baudelaire and photography, his theory of correspondences, the
character of the flaneur and its relationship to voyeuristic sensibility and the
belief in appearances. Film excerpt: "Nadar,
Photographe" Note:
Week 6
Tuesday, February 12th: Photography through the "lens" of visual communications theory: Does photography have a syntax?; Arguments for an against the existence of syntax in photography and its consequences for our understanding of the photograph; the role of syntax in developing a modernist aesthetic for photography and for its valorization as an art form; how does the problem of syntax function for contemporary photographers?
required
readings: e-reserve (PIP): Ivins, Prints and
Visual Communications, pgs. 387-393; Marien: Chapter
Three: The Expanding domain (1854-1880), pgs. 131-163.
3-page paper due today
Thursday, February 14th: Visit to Special Collections
room of the main library (4th floor) for a viewing of their collection
of original books, prints and photographs including
Stieglitz’s "Camerawork" magazine and a discussion of the evolution of
photography from pictorialism to modernism.
Week 7
Tuesday, February 19th: Photography as ART: the emergence of a modernist validation for
photography from pre-Raphaelite manipulations to Stieglitz’s concept of "the
equivalent"; the relationship of pre-Raphaelite manipulations to the
contemporary "directorial mode" and to post-modern approaches to the
medium.
required readings: Sontag: Chapter 2,
Marien,
Chapter Four: Photography in the Modern Age (1880-1918), pgs.
165-204.
Thursday, February 21st: Panel discussion: Sontag: Chapter 2, “
Week 8
Tuesday, February 26th:
In class section of mid-term exam
.
Guidelines and suggestions for the readings journal:
The journal should consist of approximately 200-300 words
(one to two pages, preferably typed but if not clearly handwritten) for each
reading on the syllabus which is printed in bold. Entries for other
readings are optional. The entry must be completed by the class for which
the assigned reading is due.
The entries in this journal should not consist of summarized restatements of the readings, but rather should express your own understanding, in your own words, of the author’s ideas and concerns. They should focus on the ideas in the reading and not on your own personal feelings about the author’s style of writing. Your entry for the reading is not expected to be exhaustive of all of the issues discussed by the author but should express what you think is the essential purpose of the author in writing the article. You should begin your entry with a short quote from the reading which you feel represents one of its major ideas.
Here are some questions that may be helpful to think about in formulating your entries in the journal. Keep in mind that the following questions are intended to stimulate your response to the reading and that it is not necessary to answer all of the following in each entry:
Photograph of the week:
Your readings journal must also include a one-page discussion (250-300 words) for each week of the semester of a photograph chosen from our textbook “Photography: A Cultural History”. Choose photographs which interest you and discuss them in the context of ideas and issues that have been introduced in lectures, class discussions and readings. The entry should either be accompanied by a reproduction of the photograph (scan or photocopy). Here are some questions which may help to stimulate your writing about the photograph:
· How does the image participate in one or more of three major critical frameworks outlined in class: the photograph as reality, construction and index.
· How does this photograph exemplify or illuminate one of the issues introduced in the readings, lectures or discussions this week?
· In what ways do you think the qualities of the photograph (i.e., subject matter, framing, pose, vantage point, lighting, focus, etc.) reflect the circumstances of its production, both technically or ideologically?
· Is there a particular fascination or disturbance that this photograph creates for you? Discuss the possible source of this, attempting to draw upon concepts and ideas introduced in class.
Students should familiarize themselves with how to recognize and avoid plagiarism. Students are advised to familiarize themselves with the university policy on academic dishonesty at: http://www.sa.usf.edu/handbook/USF_Student_Handbook.pdf All of the written work for the class must be your own. Evidence of plagiarism on any of the writing for the class or of cheating on exams will result in a final grade of “F” and the possibility of sanctions imposed by the university that may jeopardize your degree.
A syllabus of the second half of the semester
will be handed out prior to the mid-term
exam.
Topics to be covered will include:
Students in this class will be subscribed to a class listserv. Messages sent to the following listserv address will be received by all of the students in the class: photohistory@listmonster.cvpa.usf.edu Students are encouraged to use the list for any communications related to the course such as resources, articles, exhibitions, images, class study groups, etc.
Withdrawals: The deadline for dropping this course and receiving a grade of “W” (no academic penalty but not refund) is March 22nd. You must formally withdraw from the class through the registrar’s office.
Absences due to religious observance: Students who expect to be absent due to religious observance must inform me in writing by the second week of the semester.
Disabilities: Any student with a disability which may affect his/her performance in this class is encouraged to contact during the first week of the semester to discuss accommodations. The student must bring with them a current “Memorandum of Accommodations” from the Office of Student Disability Services.
Use of computers and cell phones: Students must turn off cell phones
and pagers before entering the classroom. Laptop computers are welcome but
students who use their computers for purposes other than note-taking during
class time will be counted as absent. Sound recordings of lectures
are permitted but the sale of recordings or lecture notes is prohibited.
An on-line version of this syllabus can be found at: http://historyofphoto.arts.usf.edu